1) No wheeled vehicles are allowed on the Venetian islands.
2) Outside the major cities, I feel a lot safer on the roads in Italy than in the US. On the secondary roads where I'd ride anyway, drivers don't have the attitude that bicycles are kid's toys that don't belong on "their" roads. The traffic laws presume that in an incident between car and bike the car is at fault until proven otherwise. It gives drivers more incentive to be civil to cyclists.